How much heat do I need?

[Grumpy]

Hi all,
I'm setting up a new 112 gal tank.  60" X 18", by 24" tall. 
Any recommendations on heat would be appreciated. 

I will use two heaters, and I'm guessing a pair of 200's would be sufficient, but are there any disadvantages to going bigger?  eg. 250's ?

[Grumpy]

I'm thinking of buying Jager 250's. 

Thanks for the advice! 

[babblefish1960]

They are very good heaters, you should enjoy them by not ever having to think about them again. The amount of work a heater has to perform is related directly to both the temperature your fish need to be kept at, and the ambient temperature of the room. This one is incredibly important, it is easy to keep a tank at 75 degrees Fahrenheit if this is the temperature of the room. If you need the fish over 80 degrees Fahrenheit and keep the room at 68 degrees, your heaters are going to be working steadily until they burn out.

Heaters are an area of ancillary components that should never be scrimped on, and the heaters you have chosen I'm sure you will find a worthwhile investment.

On another note, some folks recommend using smaller heaters, as a throwback to cheap heaters, if a heater gets stuck in the "on" position, it won't have the power to overheat the tank, hence the doubling or tripling of smaller heaters in larger tanks. Just a thought.

[kennyman]

The amount of work a heater has to perform is related directly to both the temperature your fish need to be kept at, and the ambient temperature of the room. This one is incredibly important, it is easy to keep a tank at 75 degrees Fahrenheit if this is the temperature of the room. If you need the fish over 80 degrees Fahrenheit and keep the room at 68 degrees, your heaters are going to be working steadily until they burn out.

Excellent point. I use 2x 300W in my 55gal to keep it at 76 in a drafty room that hovers around 65 deg this time of year. I could have got by with 2x 200W but the price between the two is so insignificant that felt the bigger heaters were the better buy.

[PuddleDuck]

In a tank that size, it seems like one heater on each end would eliminate temp differences in the tank? I had one in my 120g, and I found that that end of the tank was warmer than the rest. Easy to fix an may not even occur depending on your water flow (and hey, maybe the fish like that) but if youre shopping anyway...